Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious conditions that cause physical disability in human development. This site is dedicated to the discussion of treatments for CP and related conditions.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Tomatis

The Tomatis method is suppose to re-educate the way a person listens. It's intensive therapy where children wear head phones and listen to music like Mozart that is filter out except for the high frequencies. Children also listen to their mothers voice after it's been modulated to replicate what the fetus hears in the womb. This is suppose to stimulate the brains desire to communicate. The method is named after Dr. Alfred Tomatis who developed the method. I found a good overview of the method here:

"In 1953, Dr. Alfred Tomatis said "The voice contains only the sounds which the ear hears." This quote basically sums up the process he created to reteach the ear to listen. The program begins with an initial assessment with a consultant to test present and potential hearing. The patient is also evaluated to ensure that auditory stimulation is the appropriate treatment. Then a program is custom made, but it follows a basic pattern. The Electronic Ear is a tape recorder where sound is filtered and frequency can be adjusted. Initially, workouts consist of sessions of listening to very high frequencies that stimulate the pre-natal sounds and reproduce the stages of development from an audial point of view. This training makes it possible to switch ear dominance, reteach the listening process. These passive exercises, which consist of listening to specific frequencies, are gradually combined with active exercises utilizing the voice to maintain the lessons learned. For language learning and transformation of words and pictures, beginning with pre-natal sounds enables a person to learn a language quicker and more efficiently. The first fifteen days usually require about two hours a day. Subsequent sessions are shorter, with up to one or two months between each session."

2 comments:

We've heard about this. I researched it loosely for a time. If I recall correctly, it shouldn't be used with those who have a seizure disorder because it could induce seizures? Did you come across anything like this in your research?

About Me

I am the father of a wonderful 10 year old who suffered from lack of oxygen at birth (hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)), along with seizures shortly after birth. He has cerebral palsy, GERD, gastroparesis, developmental delay and cortical vision impairment (CVI), as well as secondary microcephaly (small head circumference) due to this lack of oxygen at birth. My wife and I have researched standard and alternative therapies for these conditions. This site's purpose is to discuss these treatments and their effectiveness.